Nightmare or Fantasy
by NeverMindDream
Summary: Another challenge...it was supposed to be a one shot and turned into three chapters...R&R GregSara
1. Chapter 1

AN Yes it's yet another challenge and yes I'm STILL not back to work on my trilogy...nobody is as impatient as I am...I'm hoping for that plot bunny to jump around in my brain soon...in the meanwhile...I hope you enjoy...This started off as a one off...and turned into a three chapter deal...who knew? lol

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**Nightmare or Fantasy?  
**(c) 2005 Dream

"Hey Sara you coming?" Nick poked his head into one of the evidence rooms.

She looked up from what she was doing and regarded him quizzically, "Coming? Where?"

"We're all going out for a drink after work, to celebrate being back together again." Nick explained, "Didn't Warrick tell you?"

Smiling she nodded, "So that's what that meant! I just passed him in the hall and all he said was, 'drinks later, don't be late'. I had no idea what he was talking about."

"You have to read through the coolness that is Warrick and understand." Nick said with a laugh, "So, you gonnna be there?"

She shrugged and went back to her evidence, "Yeah sure why not."

"Sweet." He smacked the door as he backed out of the room, "Oh and tell Greg would you?"

"Sure," She agreed without looking up.

Sara didn't see Greg till later on that shift. He was just pulling one of his arms out of the coveralls from the garage. Coming up behind him she pulled his free arm up behind his back and spoke into his ear. "You processed the car without me."

He had tensed for a moment before he knew who it was, smiling he relaxed and leaned back so he could look at her out of the corner of his eye, "You interrogated the last suspect without me, so we're even."

She let go of his arm with a sigh, "Touché I guess. Hey did Nick tell you about drinks tonight?"

"I've been staring up the ass of a car for the last four hours." He said in response.

"I'll take that as a no." She said with a smile as she leaned up against the lockers behind him and watched him tie up the arms of his coveralls around his waist and fish around in his locker.

Turning around he leaned against the locker a bottle of shampoo in his hand, "You really need to arrive at some sort of point there Sidle." He pointed the shampoo at her, "I have some severe cleaning to do and you're impeding that."

Holding up her hands she laughed and pushed herself away from the lockers, "Far be it for me to impede your cleanliness."

He sighed but was still smiling, "Just tell me about Nick and drinks and then get out of here."

"He just said we're all meeting after shift tonight for them. Celebrate the return of the team and all that."

Greg nodded, "Same place as always?"

"Do we ever change?"

"Not usually no."

"See you there."

"Of course." He winked, "But I think I'll shower first."

"You do that," Sara walked out of the locker room, "Oh and Greg?"

His voice was muffled by his head in the locker, "Yeah?"

"Use strong soap I can smell you from here." She laughed and bolted out of the room before she got hit by the face cloth he chucked at her.

Sara wouldn't admit it, even to herself, but Greg was probably one of her best friends. Ever since the explosion in the lab the two of them had carried a special bond that neither of them understood or tried to explain. Now that Greg was in the field they spent a lot more time together and Sara realized that he really seemed to understand her and much to her chagrin she really understood him too. Of course she wouldn't remotely admit that there ever would be romantic feelings for him, but reluctantly in the back of her mind she registered him at the very least a close friend.

Since her almost arrest for drunk driving awhile back Sara wasn't taking any chances so she volunteered to be DD. Greg was the last person she dropped off, "Thanks Sar." He leaned down on the passenger door of her car and smiled, "You ever think that Warrick got married too quickly?" He asked out of nowhere.

She smiled at him, "You're drunk Sanders."

"I was just thinkin' ya know." He waved away her remark and kept rambling, "After Nick's whole 'experience' it made me think that we shouldn't take what we have for granted and time isn't endless."

"Thank you Socrates, now go to bed." She put the car in gear and threatened to back up.

"Fine, fine don't listen to me." Greg said with a laugh, "Just promise me you won't let life pass you by and miss something important."

"Yeah sure Greg whatever, now can you shut my door please."

"Sweet dreams Sidle."

"Good night Greg."

She was shaking her head all the way home. It was funny what some people would say after a few drinks.

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Sara had a favorite pen and she couldn't for the life of her remember where she could have dropped it. She had just returned to the room she was working in when she figured it had probably fallen out of her pocket when she had grabbed Greg. She headed back to the locker room shaking her head, "I'm such an idiot."

Entering the room she saw the pen on the floor and picked it up, she was just turning to leave when she heard singing. She followed the sound to the showers located at the back of the locker room. She didn't realize he'd seen her till it was too late.

"You do realize you're required to join in me now that you've heard me sing." Greg poked his head around the curtain blocking the stall he was in.

Sara surprised herself by replying calmly, "I've already had a shower with you."

"Doesn't count, HazMat workers ruin the mood." He pulled the curtain a little further around him, "If you aren't here in one minute I'm coming out there to get you."

She shrugged and started unbuttoning her blouse, "All right but don't look."

He laughed and let the curtain fall back, "That's a highly ironic statement Sara."

She didn't say anything till she had removed all of her clothes and pushed the curtain aside. His back was to her so she grabbed his arm and pulled him into the same position she'd had him in earlier. She whispered into his ear, "Do you really wanna discuss this now?"

He was quicker this time and spun her around till he had both her hands pinned up against the wall behind her, "Discuss what?" He said against her mouth before kissing her long and deep.

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Her heart was beating a mile a minute. In fact she was sure that it was this beating that woke her up. Sitting up in bed she had to actually look and make sure he wasn't with her.

"What the hell?" She asked the air as she slowly lay her head back on the pillow. It had been so vivid she could almost remember what his hands had felt like on her skin. "This is ridiculous." She shook her head and tried to remove the remnants of her dream from her subconscious as she went back to sleep. "It doesn't mean anything." She whispered to herself, "It can't."


	2. Chapter 2

AN Thanks to WeasleyIsOurKing4 for pointing out a rather large error...I hope it's been fixed. :)

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It was embarrassing how vivid that dream had been and Sara for the life of her could not get it out of her head. She actually found herself watching Greg's fingers while he worked wondering what they'd feel like on her skin. She shook her head, 'this is insane', she thought and moved on.

Until two weeks later when it happened again:

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Sara got home from work and plunked her keys down on the side table by her front door. She kicked the door shut with her foot…except it didn't shut.

"You speed you know that?" He asked into the back of her neck as he stepped into the apartment with her, shutting the door properly.

She turned around and backed him up against the door, "You gotta stop following me." She said into his ear nibbling the lobe playfully.

He laughed and kissed her, hard. "You know you love it."

"Like you wouldn't believe…" She laughed and kissed him hungrily. Flipping around so she was against the door she started undoing his belt.

"Against the door?" He looked at her with a surprised smile.

"For starters." She said with a smirk.

"You minx." His chuckle was low as he watched her with growing anticipation.

She pulled him by the belt loops toward her, "You have no idea."

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Sitting bolt upright Sara had to clutch her chest to stop her heart from beating right out of it. "Damnit." She muttered.

The shower dream happened twice that night and again the following night. Greg was always in the dreams. A strong seducer and she had to admit it, in the dreams he was amazing. It was getting very difficult to look him in the eye at work.

Sara made a beeline for the coffee pot one morning.

"I could go shopping with those bags."

"Shut up." Sara mumbled as she stirred her favorite concoction into the black liquid.

"Hey I'm just making an observation. Are you not getting much sleep?"

"Even less than normal." Sara admitted. She was much too tired to be guarded.

"You wanna talk about it?"

Taking a sip of her coffee Sara contemplated refusing the offer, but at the last moment figured Catherine might give her some insight, "Do you ever have dreams with a recurring theme?"

"Sometimes," Catherine raised her eyebrows, "What sort of dream are we talking about?"

Sara blushed and looked down, "I thought it was a one time thing a few weeks ago, but it's been happening again, almost nightly. I'm so wide awake afterwards I can't fall back asleep."

"Wow these must be amazing dreams."

"You have no idea." She blushed harder recalling having said that in a few of the dreams. Damn this had to stop!

"I probably do," Catherine said with a smile catching on to everything Sara wasn't saying, except for who was staring in these dreams. "Who is it?"

Sara shook her head, "That doesn't matter I really just need a way for it to stop."

"For what to stop?" Grissom asked entering the room at the end of her sentence.

"Sara's dreams," Catherine said in way of explanation.

"Dreams are a way for our subconscious thoughts and desires to come closer to our conscious." Grissom said sagely.

"Do you have a book of those in your pocket or something?" Sara rolled her eyes, "I just need a way to make sure I can sleep."

"Well figure out whatever desire the dreams represent and purge that thought from your head." Grissom suggested.

The idea that she was harboring any sort of subconscious sexual desire for Greg Sanders scared the shit out of her so she shook her head, "That's not an option."

"What's not an option?" Warrick asked swaggering into the break room and pouring a cup of coffee for himself.

Sara sighed and explained before Grissom and Catherine could, "I'm having some…"

"…romantic dreams." Catherine jumped in, Warrick's eyebrows raised in surprise at Sara.

"Something like that," Sara glared at Catherine then continued, "Either way they are keeping me up."

"And I suggested purging the thought from her head." Grissom said, "Of course that was before I realized the nature of her dreams."

"Nature of whose dreams?" Nick came into the rapidly crowded break room.

"Sara's." Grissom, Catherine and Warrick said at the same time.

Sara was very much regretting having brought up this topic. "Never mind I'll think of something, don't we have assignments or possibly work?"

"Just figure out the desire…" Nick started.

"And purge it." Grissom, Warrick and Catherine chimed in.

"Do you three practice in between shift?" Sara mumbled, no one paid attention to her.

Nick looked at them funny. "I said that already." Grissom explained.

"We really, really need to drop this subject." Sara sighed.

"What subject?" Greg asked the last to arrive for the beginning of shift meeting.

Oh dear God, Sara thought, this is it I'm toast.

Before anyone could explain to Greg Brass arrived, "No assignment tonight folks, we have a dead hooker in a senator's hotel room. High priority, high classification."

Without another word the team followed Brass out of the break room to their vehicles.

Greg trailed after Sara, "What subject?" He asked again.

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"I had no idea the backseat of your car was so roomy." Sara lay, sated, in Greg's arms.

He chuckled, "To be honest I had no idea it was either."

"Glad I could help you figure that out."

"I'll have to remember to thank you." He murmured onto the top of her head.

She smiled against his chest then glanced over to the front, "Wow hanging from the rearview mirror, nice toss."

Greg looked over at her bra swaying from its perch, "Well everybody has a CD or dice, I like to change it up."

"You're bad," She whispered as she started kissing along his collarbone and up his neck.

He pulled her till she was straddling him, "You tire me out."

She laughed and kissed him, "Someone has to."

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Sara didn't sit up anymore. They were becoming more elaborate, in fact for all intents and purposes her dreams were basically a subconscious relationship with Greg. Something had to be done and it had to be done soon or she was sure she'd go out of her mind from lack of sleep or worse, real desire for Greg Sanders.

The following week:

"You know Sara, warm milk always helps me."

"Gravol, gravol just makes you drowsy enough to have a restless sleep."

"Have you ever thought of purging…"

If Sara got one more damn piece of advice on how to sleep she thought she just might scream. It had to be a pure act of God that Greg hadn't figured out what was going on. Although, as astute as the man was she was pretty sure he wouldn't figure out that he was the star of her racy dreams at night. She was starting to realize that there really was only one solution out of this problem and as the days went on, it wasn't actually that bad of an idea. If it worked.


	3. Chapter 3

AN Sorry I meant to put this up a couple of days ago but I've been a bit busy...here's the last bit I hope you guys like it. Thanks so much for all the reviews...I am somewhat astounded that you all enjoy my writing so much...Thanks. Please enjoy.

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Greg may not have known about the dreams but he knew something was up. Sara seemed a bit distant from him as of late. At first he thought she was just in a mood or maybe one of his overly caffeinated days kinda pissed her off. But this was different; she seemed to be distancing herself from him only. He actually had to think about the last time they had made eye contact. It was starting to bother him. He'd resigned himself to the fact that they were never going to be more than friends. He worked hard to be a good friend to her and thought that they were fine, except these last few weeks she was avoiding him like the plague. What had he done wrong?

Finally one day while the two of them were processing a scene, after all the detectives, coroners and beat cops had left, he had to know. "Sara, can I ask you something?" He said tentatively as he swept his flashlight through a closet.

"Hmm." She agreed noncommittally while open the beside table drawers.

"Have I done something to offend you?" He asked.

She stood up slowly and turned around to look at him, "Not at all Greg, why?"

"Well, you umm," He cleared his throat, "You've been kind of avoiding me lately, at least it seems like it and I just didn't want to have pissed you off without knowing it."

Sighing she ran a hand over her face, "I'm sorry, it's, well it's complicated."

"You can trust me you know that right?"

"Yeah, yeah Greg I know that." She smiled at him.

"Good I just didn't…"

"Greg?" She cut him off.

"Yeah?"

"Can we talk about this later?" She swallowed, "Like maybe after shift?"

He was forcing himself to NOT think that this could be a date. He nodded, "Sure."

"Good, cause I wanna get this scene processed sooner than later." She turned around again to finish with the drawers.

"Right." Greg turned his flashlight on again and tried not to notice his heart beating faster. Why was he all of a sudden flooded with an overwhelming sense of hope?

It felt like years before the shift was over. Greg really wasn't sure what was going on, but he was sure his heart hadn't gone back to beating at a normal rate since his conversation with Sara. He was trying not to think too much about it, when she entered the locker room.

"Hey."

He turned around, his keys in his hand, "I'm ready where do you wanna go?"

She cleared her throat, "Umm, I'm really not in the mood for restaurant noise, do you mind following me to my place?"

He was sure his eyes were bugging right out of his head, "Uh, s-sure, that's," He swallowed, hard, "Yeah that's fine."

"Great." She smiled, "Follow me."

"Anywhere," He muttered shutting his locker and walking with her to the parking lot.

He had to blast the music extra loud to force any nasty thoughts out of his head. He wasn't going to go Neanderthal on her, he refused. He weaved in and out of traffic following her as close as he could.

She waited for him before walking toward her building. She kept staring at her keys. He felt the need to at least start some conversation, "You speed you know that?" He tried.

She stopped dead in her tracks and turned around to just stare at him, "W-what did you say?"

This was the weirdest situation to be in, he racked his brain trying to figure how what he had said could have been perverted or rude and he came up with nothing. "I, uh, just said that you speed, it was hard keeping up with you."

She ran a hand over face and sighed, "Unbelievable."

"What?" He fell into step with her as they entered the building.

"Nothing," She waved him away, "This is me." She indicated a door before slipping her key into the lock and opening it.

Greg actually felt his blood rushing at a faster pace throughout his body as he entered her apartment. What the hell was going on?

"Do you want something to drink?" She asked, her voice shaking slightly as she walked into her kitchen, still not looking at him.

He really couldn't take it any more he followed her into the kitchen and spun her around to look at him, "No Sara I desperately want you to explain what the hell is happening here? Why have you been so distant lately? Why do you never give me eye contact? Not even now! I don't…" He was going to keep going but she kissed him.

Sara Sidle kissed him.

What the hell? Was he dreaming? He had to be dreaming and before he got too carried away he reluctantly pulled back, "Okay what was that for? Not that I'm complaining."

Her eyes were closed and she licked her lips slowly. Watching her was actually painful for him, this was like slow torture. "I just had to know." She finally said.

That's it he was so in the dark he couldn't see a damn thing. He put a hand to her face which made her eyes open and forced her to look at him, "You are going to start explaining things to me Sara, because I'm lost."

She smiled at him and the look in her eye actually made his heart leap. Taking his hand she pulled him into the living room and indicated that he sit on the sofa. She joined him, a hell of a lot closer than she'd ever sat near him before.

"I've been having these dreams…" She started. He blinked, not sure where this was going but refusing to cut her off till she was done. "About you."

"Me?" His voice came out slightly strangled, some pieces were falling into place.

She nodded, "Yeah, a few of them. In fact," She inhaled deeply, "lately it's been nightly. I rarely sleep."

He swallowed, stared, swallowed again then tried to remember how to breathe. "You've been dreaming about me?" Then somewhere emerged a sudden surge of confidence, "Was I good?" He put his arm up on the back of the sofa.

She grinned and looked down at her hands, "Quite."

It was a now or never moment. Something he was sure he had imagined way too many times but he wasn't about to let it pass. He closed the gap between them and kissed her again, this time taking control. After a few moments she actually groaned against his mouth. He was sure he'd died and gone to heaven.

She tasted fantastic. In fact even better than anything he could ever think of. If this was the extent of his evening it he couldn't have been happier.

She traced his lips with her tongue, "Greg?" She gasped from underneath him.

"Yeah?" He reluctantly pulled back and looked at her hoping to dear God she wasn't going to send him away.

She sat up and pulled at his shirt, which was deliciously unbuttoned and hardly on. "You know one place my dreams never happened?" She asked looking him up and down so hungrily he almost groaned.

"Nope." It's all he could think of to say and all he was sure was going to come out of his mouth that was remotely coherent.

"My bed," She stood up and offered him her hand.

He smiled and took her hand, "Lead the way."

A few hours later he woke up when he felt fingers on his face, "What are you doing?" He mumbled stretching slightly and slowly opening his eyes to look at her.

She looked so amazing he could hardly take it. She smiled, "I was just making sure you were real."

Wrapping an arm around her and pulling her to him he grinned, "Damn right I'm real. How did you sleep?"

"Like a rock." She said against him while tracing her fingers around his chest.

"Good." He kissed the top of her head.

"Oh and Greg," She leaned up a bit to look at him, "Just in case you were wondering. Better," She smiled at the blush on his face, "Much better."

Sara went toward the coffee pot at the beginning of shift then bypassed it and grabbed an orange juice from the fridge.

"You look chipper." Catherine observed.

"I am." Sara said before taking a sip.

"No dreams?"

"Oh are we talking about Sara's dreams?" Nick asked as he and Warrick came into the room.

"Are you still not sleeping?" Warrick asked.

"Last night I slept like a baby." Sara said.

"Really? That's great. Did you take anyone's advice?" Nick asked.

Grissom and Greg were looking over a file as they entered the room, "Advice?" Grissom looked up.

"I did actually." Sara said with a grin, "I took Grissom's advice."

"Really?" Catherine's eyes shot up, "The whole purging the thought by figuring out the desire?"

No one noticed Greg's smile. He let Sara control the moment, content to just watch her.

"Yeah, that one."

"And it worked?" Grissom asked.

"Rather splendidly actually." Sara's smile was broad.

Greg couldn't take it he was blushing so furiously he could feel the heat off his face. He coughed and put a hand to the back of his neck, "Don't we, umm, have a meeting to conduct or something?"

"Right." Grissom said, "Everyone have a seat."

Everyone did so and then like a rather large light bulb turning on the entire team, Grissom, Catherine, Warrick and Nick got wide eyes and just stared at Greg.

Having maintained his composure he put on the most innocent face he could, "What?"

For almost a full minute a cricket could have been heard in the room then all of a sudden Nick started laughing, "Damn Greggo." He was followed by Warrick and then the rest of the group.

Finally the meeting got underway.

Sara never had another sleepless night; at least not one due to her dreams.

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AN: I know I've used 'Damn Greggo' before…but it really just strikes me as something Nick would say…lol 


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